Minister of State's Message

As the world is moving from traditional economic models to knowledge intensive models, Pakistan is fully poised to harness the benefits of this transformative model. I have a strong belief on my people’s potential, which could help us achieve our vision of digital Pakistan. Over 60% of 200 million people of Pakistan comprise of young people. They are big asset for us. Their passion, energy, and intrinsic brilliance are the hall marks of the journey of progress which Pakistan is treading. On ICT front, Pakistan has achieved many milestones during past three years. The successful auction of 3G/4G spectrum has brought about a paradigm shift on digital landscape of the country by increasing the broadband subscriptions to over 30 million making the internet penetration to cross over 19 % from less than 3% in 2013.

Our Government has a central focus on social responsibility and digital inclusion and girls. With this in view, we have rolled a program “ICTs for Girls” for uplifting the employment potential of thousands of disadvantaged girls by providing them digitally enables infrastructure coupled with Microsoft led 4Cs, coding centric training program. For the growth of IT sector numerous incentives have been offered that include 100% equity ownership, 100%repatriation of capital/dividends, and tax exemption on IT export revenues. Our National Incubation project is one the platform of promoting business incubation for tech startups to nurture the culture of innovation in the country .To provide an enabling environment , we are in process of building state of the art Software park at Islamabad which will house software companies ,academia ,partner industries, and mentoring set ups.

Digitalization is transforming the very paradigm in which development takes place. It is our responsibility that everyone can enjoy its transformative power. We are determined to pass on the benefits of technology to all our citizens equitably and affordably.. With our USF arm, we are launching projects worth multibillions to pass on the benefits of telecommunication and broad band services to the underserved and unserved masses. We are fully committed for the proliferation of digitalization in Pakistan and look forward to capitalize the potential of human and technology for a great Pakistan. Our commitment is steadfast. Our resolve is deep. And I am confident that with this resolve and under the visionary guidance of Honorable Prime Minister, we shall make Pakistan a Digital Pakistan. That is we aim at and that is we see through. May Allah help all of us to achieve this vision.